It depends if the truck will be a practical truck or something more upscale like the lincoln LT or escalade ext.

If it will be more practical and meant to be a true pickup, then I see no issue with re-badging a Nissan, since mercedes already rebadges a renault for one of its small vans.

I think it will mainly come down to pricing. I doubt too many CItans (the rebadged Renault Kangoo) are sold outside Mercedes exclusive company car contracts, given it#s significantly more expensive than the Renault it is based on (and you can even buy the same technology with a less quirky design as a Dacia Dokker for half of it)

I guess it won't be cheap, given the Navara is already among the more expensive offerings in Europe, but I guess there will be a more commercial version and a more luxurious going after the private customer, just like the do with Vito/V-Class)

Why is anyone pretending this is anything other than a Navara with a Mercedes grille? If anything, I think Mercedes is driving Navaras around with camo to pretend that somehow they are doing real engineering on this project.

Why is anyone pretending this is anything other than a Navara with a Mercedes grille? If anything, I think Mercedes is driving Navaras around with camo to pretend that somehow they are doing real engineering on this project.

Given the vehicle in which it is based, Mercedes would be best advised to actually some engineering work (and no doubt they are). The Navara has woeful steering and a suspension system that is not suited to heavy loads - it squats significantly on its rear wheels with a few hundred kilos in the tray, resulting in it hitting its bump stops as well as oscillation issues. Nissan Australia recently introduced a Series 2 with revised suspension settings, but it wasn't completely successful, and its steering problems remain.

Given the vehicle in which it is based, Mercedes would be best advised to actually some engineering work (and no doubt they are). The Navara has woeful steering and a suspension system that is not suited to heavy loads - it squats significantly on its rear wheels with a few hundred kilos in the tray, resulting in it hitting its bump stops as well as oscillation issues. Nissan Australia recently introduced a Series 2 with revised suspension settings, but it wasn't completely successful, and its steering problems remain.

Given the general class-trailing designs that Nissan loves, Mercedes really picked a bad collaboration partner for engineering collaborations. Honda can't style products worth a damn, but they generally have great engineering and would have been a more intelligent choice in my opinion.

Given the general class-trailing designs that Nissan loves, Mercedes really picked a bad collaboration partner for engineering collaborations. Honda can't style products worth a damn, but they generally have great engineering and would have been a more intelligent choice in my opinion.